Palin Says Murkowski’s ‘Hired Guns’ Got AK Radio Host Yanked Off Air

Former candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin
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Dan Fagan, a conservative talk-radio host in Alaska, had his show pulled off the air on Friday after he encouraged listeners to file as write-in candidates in the Senate race, as a way to bury Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s name and give tea party favorite Republican nominee Joe Miller a boost.

Sarah Palin leapt to Fagan’s defense on her Facebook page, accusing Murkowski’s “hired guns” of threatening Fagan, and putting the pressure on the radio station to take him off the air.

As we reported, a writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government site and the website Conservatives 4 Palin had encouraged the write-ins as part of what C4P dubbed “Operation Alaska Chaos.” It proved quite successful, with well over 100 write-in candidates filing before the deadline last Thursday.

Murkowski is running as a write-in candidate after losing to Miller in the Republican primary.

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Last week, the Alaska Supreme Court had overturned a lower court ruling that would have prevented polling places from handing out a list of the write-in candidates to voters. The Court ruled that a list with just the candidates’ names could be provided. On Saturday, the case moved to federal court.

On Fagan’s KFQD show last Thursday, a caller phoned in and said he had registered as a write-in, and according to the The Alaska Dispatch: “Fagan gave the addresses of the Anchorage and Wasilla offices of the Division of Elections and urged his listeners to drive over and register as write-in candidates.”

Fagan said he believes Murkowski is behind his show being taken off the air: “Bottom line is that Lisa Murkowski is a very powerful person, and she has succeeded in taking me off the air the Friday before the election. It’s impressive.”

And Palin agreed, in a post called “Lisa, are you going to shut down my Facebook page for writing this?”:

Yesterday, Lisa Murkowski’s hired guns threatened radio host Dan Fagan, and more importantly, the station that airs Fagan’s show, with legal action for allegedly illegal “electioneering.” The station, unlike Murkowski, who is flush with millions of dollars from vested corporate interests, does not have a budget for a legal defense. So it did what any small market station would do when threatened by Beltway lawyers charging $500 to $1000 an hour – they pulled Dan Fagan off the air.

The Murkowski campaign denies involvement in the decision.

The TPM Poll Average shows Murkowski leading Miller 36.9%-31.7%. Democrat Scott McAdams trails at 25.5%.

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